IMG Artists Signs The Calidore String Quartet for European Management

8 May, 2018

IMG Artists is delighted to announce the signing of the Calidore String Quartet for European Management. The Quartet will be managed by Elena Kostova and Agnieszka Mikus out of company’s London office.

The Calidore String Quartet, formed of violinists Jeffrey Myers and Ryan Meehan, violist Jeremy Berry, and cellist Estelle Choi, is praised for “deep reserves of virtuosity and irrepressible dramatic instinct” (New York Times) and “balance of intellect and expression” (Los Angeles Times). Since its forming in 2010 at Cliburn School of Music, the Quartet has already won accolades across the globe and firmly established themselves as one of the finest chamber music ensembles performing today.

Elena Kostova said of the signing: “We are very excited to join Calidore String Quartet’s European journey in this early and defining stage. We sensed their uniqueness from the very moment we heard their performance at Wigmore Hall. Their sound – at once powerful and delicate – is fuelled by an energy unique among string quartets. We look forward to building upon the excellent foundations laid by Sarah Gordon from Opus 3 Artists and to helping shape Calidore String Quartet’s future in Europe.“

Agnieszka Mikus adds: “The Calidore String Quartet came to our attention thanks to a recommendation from the Emerson String Quartet. With such an endorsement, we could be certain that they are a very special group, but when we heard them live at Wigmore Hall, it became obvious they are truly extraordinary. I am very excited about our collaboration”

The Quartet’s statement reads: “Following our recent concert at Wigmore Hall, we met Agnieszka Mikus and Elena Kostova and felt their drive, ambition and passion for our music making. It is evident from the incredible work they have done for such esteemed artists as the Emerson Quartet that they are tremendous advocates for their artists. We are thrilled to join the IMG family for our General European management and look forward to this fantastic new phase of our career.”

The Calidore String Quartet have garnered the most prestigious prizes for chamber music in North America and Europe including their most recent 2018 Avery Fisher Career Grant and, in 2017, the Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Award. They made international headlines as the winner of the $100,000 Grand-Prize of the 2016 and inaugural M-Prize International Chamber Music Competition, the largest prize for chamber music in the world. Also in 2016, the quartet became the first North American ensemble to win the Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship and was named BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists.

The Calidore String Quartet regularly performs in the most prestigious venues such as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Wigmore Hall, Berlin Konzerthaus, Cologne Philharmonie, Seoul’s Kumho Arts Hall and at many significant festivals, including Verbier, Ravinia, Mostly Mozart, Music@Menlo, Rheingau, East Neuk and Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. The Quartet has collaborated with many esteemed artists and ensembles, including Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Joshua Bell, David Shifrin and the Emerson String Quartet to name a few.

Highlights of the 2017-18 season include debuts at the BBC Proms, Kennedy Center and Allice Tully Hall, presenter by Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, as well as returns to Wigmore Hall, the Verbier and Music@Menlo Festivals. As protégés of the Emerson Quartet, the Calidore String Quartet will perform a joint program with the Emersons at the Ravinia Festival as well as major series in Portland, Ann Arbor and Southern California. In addition to their Emerson collaboration, the Calidore will also perform with cellist David Finckel, pianists Wu Han and Alessio Bax and violist Roberto Diaz. The 2017-18 season continues the Calidore’s three-year residency with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s CMS Two program.

The Calidore String Quartet’s debut album for Signum Records, including quartets by Mendelssohn, Prokofiev, Janacek and Golijov, will be released in October 2018. Additionally, the Calidore String Quartet has produced three commercial recordings: quartets by Tchaikovsky and Mendelssohn recorded live in concert at the 2016 Music@Menlo Festival, Serenade: Music from the Great War, featuring music for String Quartet by Hindemith, Milhaud and Stravinsky, along with the world-premiere recording of Jacques de la Presle’s Suite en sol and the second recording ever of Ernst Toch’s Serenade for French label Editions Hortus, and, in February 2015, critically-acclaimed debut recording of quartets by Mendelssohn and Haydn for which Gramophone dubbed the Calidore String Quartet “the epitome of confidence and finesse,”.

Using an amalgamation of “California” and “doré” (French for “golden”), the ensemble’s name represents a reverence for the diversity of culture and the strong support it received from its home of origin, Los Angeles, California, the “golden state.” The Calidore String Quartet aims to present performances that share the passion and joy of the string quartet chamber music repertoire.